The GameFob Networkhttp://gamefob.com
The Revival of the Fobs is Now!Sun, 04 Jun 2017 06:53:05 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.13Joy-Con Straps for Dummies…http://gamefob.com/joy-con-straps-for-dummies/
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 06:53:05 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1438Read On]]>…and I’m apparently one of them. Last week, I put together a NBA Playgrounds tournament using four Joy-Cons for a four-player 2-on-2 session. Things were going great, but then I discovered something. As a player of single Joy-Cons as a standalone controller, I never had any issue with the SL and SR shoulder buttons. For my players, I wanted them to feel comfortable. I pulled out four unused Joy-Con straps and offered to put them on. I had no idea how hard it would be without reading the manual. Eventually, I got the Joy-Cons straps on and my players were happy. Some of them didn’t know they wanted one until they felt the comfort of that extra layer of Joy-Con height.

When I heard that Nintendo released Joy-Con straps videos last week on how to attach and detach these innovative controllers, I chuckled at my office desk because this is what I sorely needed. Check out this one below on how to attach.

The second video will quickly help you to detach the Joy-Con straps.

After the play session, the Joy-Con straps led to more laughter that is now evolving into more tournaments with their use. Players are asking to expand our tournament to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and possibly Ultra Streetfighter II: The Final Challengers.

There’s a bigger question to be answered here. Why would Nintendo feel the need to release these videos if there weren’t a lot of dummies, like me, out there?

Source(s): Nintendo YouTube Channel

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Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

Twitter: @PeteTaase

Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8562-8783-7012

]]>Switch NBA Playgrounds Owners Get Shaq Fu Rebornhttp://gamefob.com/switch-nba-playgrounds-owners-get-shaq-fu-reborn/
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 06:20:10 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1434Read On]]>NBA Playgrounds on the Nintendo Switch is the best sports game on the 3-month old system. There’s a noticeable issue when you scroll through the options on the main menu of the NBA Jam clone. The online option for users is still grayed out. To make up what appears to be a permanent non-use of the option, owners of the Switch game are getting a free use of Shaq Fu Reborn. The release trailer for the game is humorous. This one actually looks like it might be as good as advertised.

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Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

Twitter: @PeteTaase

Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8562-8783-7012

]]>Three Ways the Switch Can Succeedhttp://gamefob.com/three-ways-the-switch-can-succeed/
Sun, 04 Jun 2017 02:26:16 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1425Read On]]>E3 2017 is a make-or-break event for the Nintendo Switch. Is it too early in the system’s lifecycle for this sentiment? Absolutely not. Yes, there’s the momentum of the systems flying off of shelves shortly after they’re stocked. Yes, Breath of Wild is too magical and too irresistible for anyone to resist not eventually picking up a system. Yes, the portable features of the system make older gamers feel more in-tuned with their gamer lives. Yet with all these awesome nods for a must-own system, this first E3 for the Switch can’t be similar to your average Big N reveals of recent years. The Wii U’s first outing did not follow-up the strong third party support it launched with was indicative of its success.

What needs to happen for a change of fortunes? The Miyamoto machinery should be running at peak efficiency to drop bombshell after bombshell at next month’s gaming extravaganza. If they only come out with one or two reveals on top of what was already revealed last January, then the Switch is prone to the same treatment its predecessor received. Let’s be clear, there should be a first party Goliath (*cough* Metroid *cough*) or two waiting in the wings as a jaw-dropping reveal. Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 do not count as we’ve known about them since January. In this writing, we’ll outline three ways the Switch can succeed.

First, the Kyoto-based behemoth needs to decrease 3DS games production and start pouring their resources into Switch and their mobile gaming platforms. Why? If the 3DS gets big releases, then Pokemon will never make its way to a dedicated console device. Developer Game Freak has historically favored the Big N’s portable devices over the consoles. By this logic, the continued existence of the 3DS makes it difficult for a proper transition of the franchise to take place. Fortunately, Capcom is not following this model with the big announcement of Monster Hunter XX. If the Switch can get a proper Pokemon title from Game Freak running an advanced 3D engine, then more hardware should fly off the shelves.

Second, Nintendo needs to push the community gatherings of Switch owners by holding events and urging owners to bring their systems. We’ve seen it now early in the console’s life cycle that Switch fans will congregate with multiplayer games and multiple systems and play wirelessly. The use of the Joy-Cons makes it easy for folks to get involved even with one system. The endgame here is that gamers will want to be a part of this cool community of gamers getting together. You want the Switch to live up to the very first reveal trailer from last October that featured a Splatoon tournament. If you forgot, here it is below and fast forward to 2:37.

Third, Nintendo needs to finally make a console that does proper online gaming. The recent announcement of a $20 price for the annual price of play is promising. Using a separate smart phone app is still unclear how it will contribute to proper online; however, a mobile platform that requires a separate mobile device is a little counterintuitive. Failure to do this in the past is a key reason why the big budget online games, except for the Call of Duty franchise, has skipped Nintendo consoles in the past. Why? The hardware just wasn’t capable of proper voice chat and the “lagful” connections to cultivate online communities. This is something that the original Xbox was able to accomplish with their Halo franchise 16 years ago. Nintendo has never duplicated this successfully in any of their systems. If a proper online community can be created, then I’m confident that titles like Destiny 2 and Star Wars Battlefront II are less likely to skip the Switch and future generations of Big N consoles.

Source(s): Nintendo Website & YouTube Channel

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Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

Twitter: @PeteTaase

Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8562-8783-7012

]]>Gaming Review: NBA Playgroundshttp://gamefob.com/gaming-review-nba-playgrounds/
Sat, 27 May 2017 00:17:06 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1418Read On]]>Mad Dog Games and Saber Interactive have released a two-on-two arcade basketball game with big names that’s reminiscent of the NBA Jam games of yesteryear. This four-player gem dropped with an affordable price of $19.99 just in time for the actual NBA playoffs. The game mixes light RPG level-up elements and leverages the childhood hobby of collecting basketball cards to open up and develop playable characters. The result is game that is a slam dunk for any sports fan, especially if you’re looking to fill your Nintendo Switch library with sport titles.

Pacing: A+
In NBA Playgrounds, you start from scratch with the number of available players. The game will allow you to open up a couple packs of basketball player cards. You start with this short list of available players and work your way up to earn more basketball cards to deepen your roster of usable players. To my dismay, no Lakers were immediately available after completing half of the available tournaments. Yet, when my daughter played the game on her profile, Lakers players were immediately available. This means that not all gamers will have the same experience of opening up characters. The experience is random…and very gratifying. The issue that arises from treating players like Pokemon is there’s no option to trade between gamers with multiple Nintendo Switches. This would be a great next step if Saber Interactive wants to build on this idea for future iterations of the title.

This review is being written with all of the single-player Tournament Modes completed. What this means is that all of the gold packs of basketball cards and available stages / playgrounds have been discovered for the purposes of this review. It also means that I’ve put in over 200 single-player matches to achieve the goal of opening up as many characters as I could and leveling them up. Overall, the experience and pacing of the game to force you to play is top notch.

Art Design: C+
The visuals in NBA Playgrounds is not jaw-dropping for a sports game, but does the job it needs to do to give each stage / playground some variation. The effects are decent for the power-ups and sufficiently help the gamer player know when something different is happening on screen. The big headed NBA Jam design can be seen in this game. Individual players are actually recognizable if you didn’t see their uniform or jersey number. When docked, the game does take on more detailed visuals on a 1080p TV.

Gameplay Design: B
The gameplay is a little more deeper than NBA Jam. It’s actually harder to time a jump shot or a dunk in order for it to be successful. Early on when you play the game, this can be very frustrating with missed shots being accompanied with the words “Early” or “Late” to show that you’ve missed time the button press. While there is a learning curve, it really does help those who put in the time to get the timing down as opposed to someone who just picks the game up and has an equal opportunity to beat you by button mashing. There’s also room for strategy on offense and defense especially when trying to mix up the man-to-man coverage for mismatches. The lottery meter and steals can be both a super pay-off and penalizing depending on what end of the payoff your getting. The bottom line here is that you can be much better when you incorporate strategy. Sometimes a jump shot is preferable to a dunk that may be blocked.

Presentation: C+
The presentation for NBA Playgrounds is solid. There are a few minor setbacks: (1) The lack of a proper scoreboard is the major gripe those who frequent my living room express; (2) there are also missing NBA legends like Kobe Bryant from the final roster; (3) the broadcasting voices are minimal not very exciting; (4) the word “very” is spelled “ver” and I don’t think its slang; and (5) only Shaq and LeBron have celebration dances when they score on a unique special move. Aside from those minor things, the game’s presentation is more than worthy of the $20 price tag.

Overall
As I’m wrapping this review, I’m planning a tournament tonight around this game. It’s that much fun to play with 2 to 4 people. NBA Playgrounds will help you win the living room because it’s a fun multi-player experience and a great promotional product for on-the-go gaming for the Nintendo Switch. The single-player experience is very well-designed to push you to open more and more characters. Overall, a solid experience.

It’s been approximately 6 years since beloved pirate Jack Sparrow made his way to the big screen. This film franchise is one of Walt Disney Studios’ most coveted film franchises. According to Box Office Mojo, all of the first four films have been successes with two surpassing the billion dollar-earning threshold. There’s no doubt that this fifth installment will add more treasure-filled bucks to the House of Mickey. Though, the real question for those who love the franchise would be – does Dead Men Tell No Tales have enough freshness to withstand the scurvy fatigue of ocean salinity? Read on and find out.

Writing & Pacing
After four films, writers Jeff Nathanson and Terry Rossio have made a little tweak to the tradition of using ocean mythology to drive the story. Instead of spending time on the one developed Sparrow character and pushing yet another “seek the treasure” adventure, the writers have actually looked at other characters from the franchise and dug into their past as well for some possible development. The result is a film that utilizes past stories for inside jokes and fan service moments. There’s even a writing twist that gives the film some heart where you least expect it. In retrospect, the pacing and development of the story was solid enough where the delivered plot twist was pleasantly unexpected. My “predicting plots” radar was thrown off and I couldn’t be more happier.

Performances
There’s a reason Johnny Depp was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Sparrow and it’s because he’s a joy to watch on screen. Depp has managed to put both youth and aging characteristics to the rum-drinking “scallywag”. Geoffrey Rush (Hector Barbossa) and Kevin McNally (Joshamee Gibbs) join Depp as being the only cast members to be in every film in the franchise. Both have shown evolution in their characters in this film and it does a nice segue from the last film rather than re-booting their personalities. Rush’s performance bests Depp’s in this film, which is a great feat and wonderful surprise for the film. Newcomers Brenton Thwaites (Henry Turner) and Kaya Scodelario (Carina Smith) are fresh additions to the franchise that introduce some youthfulness to our aging regulars. Javier Bardem as our primary villain is always a great choice to scare all of the movie-goers. His portrayal of pirate-killer Armando Salazar is sinister and rivals past portrayals of villains in the series by Ian McShane (Blackbeard) and Bill Nighy (Davy Jones). Overall, the cast of actors didn’t overdo any of their roles and played them with no distractions. This is especially important in Pirates since antagonists and protagonists do a lot of flip-flopping.

Presentation
You can tell that the filmmakers and producer Jerry Bruckheimer doesn’t plan on recreating action pieces that have already been done in the franchise. While directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg do a much better job than Pirates 4 director Rob Marshall, Gore Verbinski’s action pieces in the series have yet to be topped from the first three films. The execution (guillotine and hanging) scene is probably my favorite action piece from the entire series, which says a lot for the Pirates franchise. Overall, Pirates 5’s action was fun to watch, especially with the heavy special effects pieces that Disney has invested a lot of time and money developing. There are some nods to the original walking dead pirates from Curse of the Black Pearl, but Salazar’s men move a lot differently and more aggressively in this film. Of course being a big budget Disney film, the special effects work was top notch.

OverallPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, much like its predecessors, is a great time at the movies with friends and family. It does more to develop its existing characters while introducing fresh and distinct new faces. The writing twist at the end did well to give the film lots of unexpected emotion.

Final Grade: A-
Source(s): Box Office Mojo
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Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

If you were smart enough to stay for the end credits scene for Dead Men Tell No Tales, good for you. For those of you who walked out and those that are curious, here’s it is with spoilers.

****

Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), fresh off being freed from his curse to ferry the dead, is in his bed next to his wife Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley). They are both asleep in an upstairs room when footsteps approach the room. A shadowy figure enters the room and you can see the shadowy outline of Davy Jones with his crab-pincher arm lifted above them. Will suddenly wakes up to see that no one is there. He gives Elizabeth a hug…and the camera pans down below the bed where there appears to be barnacles on the floor. These used to be grafted to Will’s skin while taking on the duty of Davy Jones.

That’s the scene. What did you think?

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Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

Twitter: @PeteTaase

Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8562-8783-7012

]]>Geek Service Announcement: Stay Until the Credits Are Done Rolling for Pirates 5http://gamefob.com/geek-service-announcement-stay-until-the-credits-are-done-rolling-for-pirates-5/
Fri, 26 May 2017 13:00:00 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1407Read On]]>If you’re wondering whether to stay until the credits are done rolling for today’s release of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the answer is “YES!”. The theater last night emptied out until there were only about 20 people. We were treated to scene that sets up the next film. For those of you who were wondering, somewhere Maui is singing “You’re Welcome”.

What did you think of the final scene?

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Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

Twitter: @PeteTaase

Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8562-8783-7012

]]>The DCEU: Zack Snyder’s Decision to Step Awayhttp://gamefob.com/the-dceu-zack-snyders-decision-to-step-away/
Tue, 23 May 2017 20:08:10 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1404Read On]]>I’ve been a huge critic of Zack Snyder’s handling of the DCEU. I thought Man of Steel was okay and had to watch Batman v. Superman a couple of times more to gain some semblance of appreciation. I’m hopeful that the DCEU can turn it around, especially since they can bring all of their franchises to the big screen themselves. This is a claim that Marvel Studios can’t make because of the rights to Spider-Man and X-Men / Fantastic Four franchises currently reside in rival studios Sony and 20th Century Fox stables.

I had voiced my complaints in many conventions, geek circles, and here at the GameFob Network on my disdain of Snyder’s efforts. Yet, I remained hopeful. Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter (THR) reported that Snyder was stepping away due to a family tragedy. Last March, his 20-year old daughter Autumn committed suicide. This is sad. As a father, I don’t know how I would be able to deal with this in a professional setting. I would probably shut down completely. Snyder admirably continued to work through the tragedy. I applaud him for his strength. I also applaud his recognizing that family is much more important.

Also according to THR, Joss Whedon is taking over post-production with some re-writes with the film still targeted for November 17th. I’m now rooting for this film much more because the human side of me wants a win for Snyder and his family. Yes, I want a great film for the DCEU film. Yes, I’m a fan of Joss Whedon. Yes, I’m a much bigger Marvel Cinematic Universe fan. In the end, those all take a backseat to wanting a win for the Snyders.

Source(s): The Hollywood Reporter
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Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

Twitter: @PeteTaase
Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8562-8783-7012

]]>NBA 2K18 and the Kobe and Shaq Funny Commercialhttp://gamefob.com/nba-2k18-and-the-kobe-and-shaq-funny-commercial/
Sat, 13 May 2017 12:28:26 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1399Read On]]>While NBA 2K18 will drop on all systems on September 19th of this year and will most likely continue its dominance as the premiere NBA simulation, it’s their latest commercial that has my attention. As a lifelong Lakers fan, it’s fun to see a trailer where Kobe and Shaq play nice with each other in their old age. They are much more mature now where they will mock their rivalry that divided NBA fans over a decade ago.

Furthermore, it is crazy to think that these two legends shared the same court together. They were so dominant in different aspects of the game. They may not have as many rings together as Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen or Magic and Kareem, but I think these two were much more dominant than those other duos in their physicality and athletic ability. If they had stayed together long enough and Shaq was taking much better care of his body and fitness, they may have surpassed other duos in rings. Laker Nation misses those days now as we see the Celtics already deep in the playoffs so soon after losing their Big 3 of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen.

Enjoy the trailer below if you haven’t seen it? Were you Team Kobe or Team Shaq back in the day?

Pete Taase once was a Sith Lord, but was brought back from the depths of dark side by his younglings and old VHS cassettes that require the tracking button to make the screen clearer to view.

Twitter: @PeteTaase

Nintendo Switch Friend Code: SW-8562-8783-7012

]]>Johnny Depp Surprises Fans as Jack Sparrow at Pirates of the Caribbean Ridehttp://gamefob.com/johnny-depp-surprises-fans-as-jack-sparrow-at-pirates-of-the-caribbean-ride/
Sat, 13 May 2017 11:57:37 +0000http://gamefob.com/?p=1396Read On]]>I’ve seen actors promote their upcoming films by making the rounds of various news and talk shows. There is a short list of actors who will actually cosplay. Of recent memory, Benedict Cumberbatch on Jimmy Kimmel did a Doctor Strange skit, Tom Hiddleston and Michael Rooker both dressed up for Hall H at SDCC as Loki and Yondu respectively. These actors; however, have not dressed up more than Johnny Depp has as Jack Sparrow. Set to star in his fifth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, it’s hard to imagine the actor has played other iconic roles outside of this one. As evident from our visit to the last D23 event, he’s willing to suit up as the drunken pirate he received an Oscar nomination for in the original.

The next installment of Pirates releases on May 26th. Check out the video below from the Disney YouTube Channel highlighting this appearance. What would you do if you saw Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow in public?